Do you have several graphics cards from different vendors and chipset manufacturers? Wish you could mix and match them together on a single system for better graphics performance?  Well now you can!

Meet the HYDRA 200 chip designed by the folks at LucidLogix Technologies. Announced this week at Intel IDF 2009, HYDRA 200 works with the Intel i5/i7 processor and the P55 platform to enable you to mix and match GPUs of any configuration for scalable high performing 3D graphics. This means you can match GPUs from NVIDIA, ATI, you name it, into a single system and get additional throughput as a result.

One of the first motherboards to feature the new HYDRA 200 chip is the newly announced MSI Big Bang Gaming Motherboard. .Expect the MSI Big Bang Gaming Motherboard to be available this holiday season (although no price has been specified as of yet).

[Check out the press release]

Technorati Tags: LucidLogix HYDRA 200

Jon Peddie Research is out with their latest graphics market research report and the numbers for Q2 are certainly encouraging.

Contrary to historical numbers, graphics sales rose by a whopping 31.29% from Q1 to Q2 of this year (historically, sales drop from Q1 to Q2 before picking up again in the back-to-school season).

Now of course, this hasn’t been exactly a normal global economy that we’re in right now. A growth in the graphics market could be a leading indicator to the overall health of the PC/computer market.

The big three graphics vendors (AMD/ATI, NVIDIA, Intel) all enjoyed solid growth during Q2 with AMD enjoying an incredible 41.5% growth quarter over quarter and an 18.4 percent market share overall. Intel enjoyed a 35.2 % boost in shipments Qtr over Qtr and owns approximately 51.2 %of the market. NVIDIA received a modest 23.5% growth Q/Q while controlling roughly 29.2 % of the market share.

However, to keep things in perspective, JPR doesn’t expect levels to reach 2008 levels again until 2010. So while it’s great to see growth in the graphics market – it was inevitable given the collapse of the global economy.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Jon Peddie Research, Computer Graphics

If you’re into computer animation, then you might want to check out Mass Animation – the “first collaborative, worldwide effort to produce a computer-generated animated short film for theatrical release.” Kicked off by Intel, Mass Animation allows you to animate shots of “Live Music” – a 5 minute CGI-animated short film produced and directed by Yair Landau, the former president of Sony Pictures Digital. The collaboration is made possible via an application built on the Facebook Platform and will run through January 30th. Anyone can work on the project now and community voting will take place starting on November 24th. To jazz things up a bit, Dell will be awarding a Dell Studio XPS desktop PC powered by the new Intel Core i7 processor to animators whose creation was rated the best by the community on a weekly basis. Check out the following press release for additional information.

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Technorati Tags: Intel, Computer Animation, Mass Animation, Facebook Platform